US ethanol policy led to huge increase in emissions: study

The development of the US ethanol industry has inadvertently led to a massive increase in carbon emissions, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study released Wednesday said.

US gasoline has been blended with ethanol since a 2007 federal law change, precipitating a massive uptick in agricultural land use for corn and soybean farming in the years that followed.

Forests, wetlands and pasture were all repurposed as agricultural land following the law change, releasing carbon held in the soil into the atmosphere.

And while ethanol now represents some 10% of the US fuel mix and has reduced the use of traditional fossil fuels, the shift has seen a significant net increase in carbon emissions.

Seth A. Spawn and Tyler J. Lark, the report’s authors, estimated the increased carbon emissions as equivalent to approximately 20 million additional cars driving on US roads since 2007.

The study comes at a time when the European Parliament is debating the continued use of first generation biofuels with a view to banning crop-based biofuels.